What The Promise Says

Voice

Documenting Decisions

Care experienced children and young people will not be criminalised (Pg 40). Children who have often experienced the failures of the state in the provision of their care will not be locked up (Pg 91). 



1. There will be a shared language of care and approach between services and professionals so that families are not navigating between competing standards and expectations (Pg 54). 

2. Professionalised language will not be used to describe meetings and experiences (Pg 87). The words ‘respite’ (Pg 88), placement’ and ‘contact’ will not be used (Pg 24) and changes will be made to stop using similar ‘system language’.

All reports and care records will use simple, caring and plain language, written with the assumption that the child or young person will read them. The tone and content will reflect respect, empathy and inclusion.

5. Simple, caring language will be used in the writing of care  les (Pg 69).
6. The workforce will be considerate and write reports in a clear, relatable
   way, using plain English (Pg 69). Reports will be written with the
   assumption the young person will read them later (Pg 69).

Decisions, particularly within the Children’s Hearings System, will be recorded with accuracy, clarity and relevance — evidencing reasoning, respecting sibling relationships and avoiding unnecessary or historic detail.

7.  All reports and submissions to a Children’s Hearing will be accurate, of high quality with all information that decision-makers require. Historical information that is not the focus of the reasons for the Hearing discussion will only be included where there is a need to provide context (Pg 42). Decision making in relation to any sibling separation will be accurately recorded and reviewed (Pg 62).

Those with care experience will hold and own the narrative of their stories and lives, shaping how their experiences are understood and represented.

4. Scotland will understand that "language creates realities." Those with care experience will hold and own the narrative of their stories and lives (Pg 69).

Public discussion of care will be free from stigma and sensationalism. Society and media will portray care experience accurately and positively, celebrating love and belonging.

3. Society and the media will be mindful of how individual care stories are talked about and publicised. Care experienced people’s experiences will not be sensationalised and everyday examples of real-life scenarios will be promoted instead (Pg 88).

Listening

Every child will be listened to in ways that reflect their needs and abilities. No one will be considered “hard to reach,” and trusted adults will interpret the voices of babies and non-verbal children with empathy, care, and understanding of their context. Listening to children, young people, and adults with care experience will underpin service delivery, regulation, and improvement.

2. Listening will have fundamentally shifted the balance of power and will provide a basis for shared language and understanding (Pg 32). Active listening and engagement will be a fundamental part of how Scotland makes decisions and supports children and families (Pg 37).
3. Effort will be made to ensure that quieter voices are listened to and understood, including infants and nonverbal children and those with learning disabilities. No one will be considered ‘hard to reach’ (Pg 32). The challenges of listening to babies, infants and young children will be recognised. Trusted adults who interpret their voices and behaviours will so with care and consideration. The overall context of their care and the assets of their parents will be actively considered (Pg 32).
4. Decision-makers will listen with an expectation that what they hear will form the basis of their decisions (Pg 32). Listening will start with the expectation that it will lead to change (Pg 13).
5. The pain associated with the telling and retelling of stories will be recognised. Listening will be therapeutic and provide opportunity for healing. Children will not have to describe the most painful parts of their lives at every turn if they do not want to. (Pg 32).
6. The workforce and decision-makers will be given time and space to really listen to what children want and need. They will be supported to listen and be provided with age and stage appropriate resources with creative and thoughtful options to meet a diverse range of needs through meaningful relationships (Pg 30/32/33/37).

Practitioners and decision-makers will have the time, emotional space, and resources to listen meaningfully, using creative and relationship-based approaches suited to children’s age, stage, and circumstances. Listening to children, young people, and adults with care experience will underpin service delivery, regulation, and improvement. Continuous participation will remove the need for future large-scale reviews, embedding learning within everyday practice.

7. Scotland will listen to care experienced children, young people and care experienced adults in the delivery, inspection and continuous improvement of services and care (Pg 37). Services will be creative in their listening (Pg 32).
8. There will never be another review or judicial inquiry on the scale of the Independent Care Review because participation and listening are forming part of everything within Scotland’s ‘care system’ (Pg 37).

Participation and engagement

Children, families and care experienced adults actively participate in decisions that affect their lives, supported to express views and influence outcomes.

1. The voice of every person with care experience will be heard in their care journey (Pg 32).
2. Children will be appropriately involved in decision-making about their care, with all those involved properly listening and responding to what they want and need (Pg 12).
3. Children will be provided with all the support they need to fully participate and be heard in Hearings (Pg 42).

Decision-making prioritises the voices of children, families and trusted adults over professional hierarchy. Parents and wider family members are included and valued in all decisions and planning.

4. Decision making will take into account what those closest to the children report rather than relying on a professional hierarchy (Pg 13/14).
5. A concerted effort will be made to hear more from parents and wider family members with children who are on the edge of or in care (Pg 32).

Children and adults understand and own their personal histories and care records, supported in accessing them safely and meaningfully.

6. Care experienced children, young people and adults will have ownership over their own stories and personal data so that they can understand and influence how their stories are shared (Pg 31).
7. Life story work will follow the lead of a child or young person and will not create or compound stigma (Pg 69).
8. Adoptive families will be aware of their responsibility to support their children to understand their life history (Pg 75).
9. If a child or adult wishes to access their care records they will be properly supported through that process (Pg 69).

Care

Advocacy and legal advice

Advocacy and legal representation will have distinct but complementary roles. Families, children, and practitioners will understand when and how each applies, ensuring rights are upheld and voices are heard at every stage.

2. The purpose of advocacy and representation will be clear. Advocacy will not replace rights to legal representation but advocacy and legal representation will have a separate, distinct purpose (Pg 114/116).

Scotland will have a national network of independent advocacy providers that are structurally and financially separate from statutory services, free to access, and operating to consistent, regulated standards.

3. Care experienced children, young people and adults will have the right and access to independent advocacy, at all stages of their experience of care and beyond. There will be no upper age limits for accessing advocacy and it will be available for as long as it is needed (Pg 115).
4. There will be consistent advocacy standards across Scotland that are subject to inspection and regulation (Pg 115).
5. Independent advocacy organisations will have been commissioned to ensure that advocacy is structurally, financially and psychologically separate from statutory organisations and service providers (Pg 115).
6. Groups and providers of peer advocacy will be supported to provide meaningful support to families (Pg 115).

Specialist and peer advocacy models will be well-resourced and available to children and families who need them, including disabled children, unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, and those for whom English is an additional language.

7. There will be no upfront or hidden charges associated with engaging an advocacy worker (Pg 115).
8. Advocacy workers will be skilled and knowledgeable about the rights and entitlements of children. Specialist advocacy workers will be available to support disabled and unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (Pg 115).

Every child, young person, family, and care experienced adult will have access to high-quality legal advice and representation whenever needed, including for appeals, reviews, and judicial processes. Support will be universally available and aacessible, with particular consideration given to ensure that support is access to those living in rural communities and, or those who have additional support needs.

9. Children and their families will have a right to legal advice and representation if required (Pg 116). This includes unaccompanied asylum-seeking children who will have access to legal support, advice and advocacy to navigate the Home Office asylum procedures (Pg 65). Legal advice will also be accessible to children with additional support needs, those living in rural communities and those for whom English is a second language (Pg 61).
10. Lawyers will act in a way that is accessible, understandable and not overtly adversarial (Pg 116).

Legal professionals working with children will act with empathy, clarity, and respect. Scotland will develop accredited specialisms in child law that embed understanding of children’s rights, trauma, and wellbeing.

11. Scotland will have considered the creation of an accredited legal specialism to set standards for legal professionals representing children. Those standards will uphold children’s rights, understand trauma and attachment and how to operate in a setting that seeks to uphold children’s wellbeing (Pg 116).
12. There will be ready access to legal advice and representation when aspects of the 'care system' go wrong. There will be clarity about where care experienced children and young people can turn to for legal redress. All care experienced children and young adults will have access to justice legal remedies such as appeals, reviews and judicial reviews. Access to justice will include access to legal advice for children with additional support needs, those living in rural communities and those for whom English is a second language (Pg 116).

Decision making

Decision making will be grounded in what children and young people need and want, with secure and loving relationships at its heart. Decision making processes will be honest and transparent, and sibling rights to participation and legal redress will be upheld in all contexts, including Children’s Hearings.

1. Decision making will be based, first and foremost, on what children and care experienced young adults need and want (Pg 14/ 112).
2. The starting point for any decision will be how to best protect relationships that are important to children (Pg 30). Secure attachments, based on loving, consistent relationships, will be the bedrock of every decision made about children (Pg 72).
3. Listening and decision making will be honest and transparent so that everyone understands what has been decided and why (Pg 33).
4. Decision making must take account of the dynamics of sibling relationships and all sibling voices must be heard. (Pg 62) In Children's Hearings, attention must be paid to the rights of brothers and sisters to ensure that they have all the necessary legal rights to have their voice heard. That must include the notification of forthcoming Hearings about their brothers and sisters and speedy rights of appeal if required (Pg 40).

Decision making will challenge traditional power dynamics, embedding Family Group Decision Making as the standard approach. Kinship carers and family members will have real influence and will be able to make routine parenting decisions without unnecessary bureaucracy.

5. Family Group Decision Making and mediation will be a common part of decision making (Pg 33).
6. Kinship family decision making will be supported by and characterised by family group decision making, to explore the breadth and consequences of decisions about where children should live (Pg 74).
7. Scotland will have challenged power dynamics within all decision making processes to achieve a balance which ensures all decisions taken are in the best interests of the child (Pg 14). There will be a balanced approach to decision making that primarily listens to and focuses on children and their families (Pg 32).
8. Family Carers can make routine parenting decisions within set guidelines without needing permission each time. Bureaucracy will not be getting in the way of day to day decision making (Pg 105).

Children and families will have control over their information and how it is shared. Decision makers will access the right information at the right time, with digital tools supporting ownership, and workforce knowledge recognised as key to effective decisions.

9. In order for decision-makers to make effective decisions alongside children and families, the right information will be shared at the right time and that those close to children will be heard (Pg 30).
10. There will have been investment in the development of digital tools that incorporate the principle of information ownership. These will be operating at a scale that allows care experienced children, young people and adults to have control over their information and how it is shared (Pg 35).
11. The importance of the judgement and knowledge of the workforce who have regular, direct contact with children will be acknowledged. Those working with and alongside children will know where to report information and be confident it will be taken seriously. Pg 36).

The principles of the Children’s Hearings System will be upheld and redesigned to better serve children and families. This will include testing new models, reviewing the role of volunteers, considering enforcement powers, and shrinking and specialising the system to better meet children’s needs.

12. The principles underpinning the Children's Hearings System will be upheld and understood across Scotland's services (Pg 14/89).
13. Children, young people, and families will be the focus of the whole of the Children's Hearings System (Pg 14) and their legal rights will be upheld and respected (Pg 14/42).
14. There will have been active consideration and testing of underlying structures, so that the Children’s Hearings System is best placed to truly listen and uphold the legal rights of children, young people, and their families (Pg 14) in accordance with what the Independent Care Review heard. This reconsideration will have been done in an evidence- based manner. Options for change will have been piloted (Pg 40).
15. The extension of enforcement and compulsion powers will have been tested to support parents and ensure local authorities are fulfilling their obligations to children (Pg 41).
16. The role of volunteers in the decision making structure of Hearings will have been comprehensively assessed. There will have been a thoughtful, evidence based exploration of alternative models of decision making (Pg 44).
17. The Children’s Hearings System will have shrunk and specialised and planning will have taken place to facilitate this, including full and proper consideration of implications for the operating model—including the dependency on volunteers (Pg 44). Find out more about the Hearing's for Children Redesign Recommendations.

Family

People

Scaffolding